1. HOW TO BE
A POSITIVE
INFLUENCE
BY ROBIN LOW

2. “The only place poverty should be is
in Museums.”
-- Muhammad Yunus
Nobel Laureate Professor.

3. War on Poverty started in 1960s,
but the rate of poverty has barely
changed.
Was $20 Trillion not enough to
end poverty in the US?

4. DONATIONS
Many people have donated in their
lives, but how many know what
happened to that dollar?

5. CHANGE
Many people consider themselves
change agents, but they are waiting for
others to tell them what to do.
Others will follow what people are doing
which have not been showing success.
Will this bring change?

6. KNOW WHY MOST
CHANGE EFFORTS FAIL.
Most change efforts fail because we
have unrealistic expectations and we
look to one simple solution.

7. KNOW THAT UNREALISTIC
EXPECTATIONS GET IN THE WAY.
It’s not realistic to expect that people
will change even when the
consequences for not changing are
enormous, everyone knows the
consequence, and the change
required is simple.

8. CHANGE AGENT
Many people want to affect
positive change, yet many rely on
old methods that have failed to
affect change.

9. MEASURING SUCCESS
Often, the matrix used to measure
success is wrong. Why is the success
of a disaster relief measured on how
much money is donated rather than
how many lives are back to normal
again?

10. PATIENCE
Some problems cannot be solved
overnight.
Many want fast results, and don’t
want to put in more effort to solve
the problems. Instead they rely on
quick fixes.

11. WISDOM
Ask for serenity to accept the
things you cannot change, but
must find the courage to change
the things you can.
The wisdom is to know the
difference

12. SOCIAL IMPACT
• Does a one time donation provide
any social impact?
• Does providing shoes for the poor
make them less poor?
• Does giving a beggar $1 change
his life in any way?

13. DANGERS OF SOCIAL
INTERVENTION
• Making life decisions for those
we are helping
• Is there “Over Helping?”
• Is it sustainable?
• Is it what they want? Is it what
they need?

15. THEN WHY ARE WE
STILL DOING IT?

16. “Philanthropy dollar” can
only be used once, the
“social dollar” can be used
again and again.
-- Muhammad Yunus

17. LONG TERM VS
SHORT TERM
• Do you want sustainable long
term impact or focus on one off
project?
• Will you run the project
FOREVER?

18. CAUTION
If you want a quick fix
solution, STOP!
This presentation will not help you
find a quick way to solve a big
problem.

19. POSITIVE INFLUENCER
For most problems, change may not
come from external help. People
from outside the community cannot
affect change, but they can provide a
conducive environment for change
to happen.
The community needs to have
behavioral change for sustaining
change to happen.

20. VOLUNTEER -> POSITIVE
INFLUENCER
A volunteer works for an profit
organization and tries to make a
difference. When things don’t
change, they give up and stop
volunteering.
A positive influencer engages the
community to find out about the
problems and work with them to find
root causes and vital behaviors to
spread to bring about sustaining
change.

21. WHO IS AN INFLUENCER?
Everyone is an influencer
An influencer motivates others to
change
An influencer replaces bad behaviors
with power new skills
An influencer makes creates
sustainable change.

22. HOW TO BE A POSITIVE
INFLUENCER?
There are a few tips to help you be a
more effective positive influencer.
1. To be a change agent, you may
need to change yourself.
2. Learn engagement strategies to
find vital behaviors for change
3. Learn strategies for changing
thoughts and actions

23. KNOW WHAT INFLUENCE IS
Influence is the ability to change our
own behavior or the behavior of
others.

24. ANTAGONISTS /
BARRIERS

25. DEHUMANIZING AGENT
• Moral Justification
• Dehumanization
• Minimizing and displacing
responsibility

26. MORAL JUSTIFICATION
• Parking at a handicapped spot for a
quick dash to convenience store.
• Justify dangers by blaming it on
running costs
• Justify pollution with “lower price”
• Ignoring legitimate needs of
customers for profits

27. MORAL JUSTIFICATION
• Dumping toxic chemicals into rivers
because there is no laws against it.
• Raising fees on services because of
Monopoly in market
• Lowering wages for shareholders’s
benefit

28. DEHUMANIZATION
• Turning real people into statistics
• Treating people as demographics
instead of individuals with different
needs
• Making decisions based on
statistics not needs
• Setting cost of “human life” and
comparing to risk assessments

29. MINIMIZING AND DISPLACING
RESPONSIBILITY
• Blame it on “other departments”
• Blame it on “once every rare event”
• Spending money and hoping
problems will magically go away.
• Blame it on standard procedures.
• Just following orders.

30. SAYING A AND DOING B
Many parents will tell their kids to
avoid illegal things, but will continue
to provide their kids with free rent,
food and vehicles – and bail money,
when they get into trouble.
Many people want to support small
businesses but will shop at large
stores for more discounts.

31. SAYING A AND DOING B
Many people will talk about having a
low carbon footprint but will drive a
big SUV for “safety”
Many people who want to lose
weight, will drink diet soda, 2 liters at
a time.

32. INFLUENCE
You need to convince yourself before
you can influence others.

33. KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
INFLUENCE AND PERSUASION.
When short-term isn’t enough, you
need influence. Persuasion is short
term, while influence is about long
term impact. Persuasion often
involves getting verbal agreement or
support, while influence requires
changing minds, hearts, and actions.

34. INFLUENCE VS.
PERSUASION
INFLUENCE
PERSUASION
Challenges involve
changing longterm, deeply entrenched
behaviors.
Challenges are more shortterm.
Getting support is often
many people and many
interlocked behaviors.
Challenges typically involve
getting someone to say yes
or no.
Challenges require
changing
minds, hearts, and
actions.
Challenges are about
getting verbal agreement or
support.

35. HOW TO INFLUENCE?

36. FIND VITAL BEHAVIORS
• Once discovered and changed,
problems however big will topple.
• Do not get distracted by values,
homilies, or emotional appeals.
• Changing values and attitudes can
happen after solving the problem.

37. KNOW THE 3 STRATEGIES FOR
FINDING VITAL BEHAVIORS.
The 3 strategies for finding vital
behaviors are:
1) insist on vital behaviors,
2) identify crucial moments, and
3) study positive deviance.

38. WAYS TO FIND VITAL
BEHAVIORS
Engage – Talk to everyone, listen to
their stories.
Document their stories, find success
stories, what can be learned from the
experience.
Learn from failures, what are the root
causes of returning (recovery)
behaviors.

39. VITAL BEHAVIORS
All it takes is to change a few vital
behaviors to drive big change.
Search for recovery behavior as
people make mistakes and they
should learn what went wrong and
take corrective actions.

40. INSIST ON VITAL BEHAVIORS.
Vital behaviors are specific actions that
dramatically influence the results. This is
about focusing on the vital few behaviors
that have cascading impact. For
example, in our group, we ship projects on
time because we “fix time, flex
scope.” When we ran scope driven
projects, we would slip schedules. That’s
an example of a vital behavior. You don’t
always have the benefit of hind-sight so the
key is to find good
candidates, experiment, and test your
results.

41. FIND VITAL BEHAVIORS
Vital behaviors exponentially improve
your results. If crucial moments tell
you when it’s time to act, vital
behaviors tell you exactly what to do
and how to do it. Vital behaviors tend
to stop self-defeating and escalating
behaviors. They often start a reaction
that leads to good results.

42. HERE ARE THE KEYS
TO FIND THEM:
• Behaviors are actions.
• Behaviors are not results or
qualities.
• Not all behaviors are equal.
• Only a few are genuinely vital.
• Some is not a number.
• Soon is not a time.

43. EXAMPLES OF VITAL
BEHAVIOR AND RESULTS
VITAL BEHAVIOR
RESULT
Make ten cold
calls a day to
keep the pipeline
filled.
Hit $2 million in
sales by the end
of the quarter.
Do thirty minutes
of cardio daily.
Lose three inches
from my waist by
December.

44. 3 STRATEGIES FOR FINDING
HIGH-LEVERAGE BEHAVIORS:
• Strategy 1. Insist on vital behaviors. Tells
you exactly what to do and how to do it.
• Strategy 2. Identify crucial moments. Tell
you when it’s time to act. It’s the point in
time where the right behavior, if
enacted, leads to the results you want.
• Strategy 3. Study positive deviance. Find
and study those who succeed where most
others fail.

45. FINDING VITAL BEHAVIORS …
With larger projects: check with local experts,
scan the best and most-cited articles and
research, search the Internet for most-cited
experts, perform a culture assessment.
With smaller projects: determine your crucial
moments, find the behaviors in those moments
that will affect your results, conduct a miniexperiment (test the vital behaviors.)

46. WAYS TO INFLUENCE
Create profound vicarious
experiences
You can read all the books you want
about entrepreneurship, attend all
the business classes, intern at all the
newest startups, and write all the
best business plans.
But if you don’t start your
business, you are not an
entrepreneur.

47. FIELD TRIPS / VIDEOS
If your employees have not felt real
good service, perhaps they should
visit places with good service to know
it can be done.
Find videos and real examples of the
behavior you want to target, to show it
has be done, and it is possible.
Unlock the limited mind.

48. USE STORIES TO
HELP CHANGE MINDS
Stories can create touching moments
which can help people view the world
in new ways.
But not all stories work.
Successful stories have these
elements: Promote Understanding,
Believeing, Motivating.

49. USE STORIES TO
HELP CHANGE MINDS
Stories need to be complete
PROVIDE HOPE
Combine stories and experiences as
vicarious narratives can propel people
into their own experience.

50. INFLUENCE
The difference between effective and
ineffective change makers is that the
effective ones don’t rely on a single
source of influence.

51. KNOW THE FUNDAMENTAL
ATTRIBUTION ERROR.
The mistake is assuming people do
things for only one reason.

52. IT’S NOT ONE SIMPLE
SOLUTION.
Profound, persistent, and resistant
problems last because we look for
one simple solution. There’s rarely
one cause. Analyze six sources of
influence to diagnose the problems.
You can influence persistent and
resistant behaviors when you know
the forces driving it.

56. 6 SOURCES OF INFLUENCE
Personal
Social
Structural
Motivation
Stay out of
Comfort Zone
Ability

57. STAY OUT OF COMFORT ZONE
Staying in the comfort zone – well – is
comfortable.
Many healthful behaviors are boring,
uncomfortable or even painful.
And many unhealthful behaviors can
be pleasurable.
Change cause enormous amount of
discomfort, conflict and uncertainty.

58. STAY OUT OF COMFORT ZONE
People are pushed to rethink
processes, uncover problems and
reapportion power.
Reasonable people resist things that
are uncomfortable or stressful, which
is why most of these efforts fail.

59. HOW TO START?
Create new experience
-- Onboarding.
Think Gamification.

60. HOW TO START?
Create new motives
-- Connect to a person’s values.
-- Engage in Moral thinking.
-- Connect behavior to moral values.
-- Spotlight human consequences.
-- Provide options, win hearts

61. USE MULTIPLE STRATEGIES.
Overwhelm the problem with
resources. If you want to improve
your success 10x, then rather than
use 1-2 strategies, use 4 or more highleverage behaviors.

62. 6 SOURCES OF INFLUENCE
Personal
Social
Structural
Motivation
Stay out of
Comfort Zone
Ability
Grow up or
Grow old

63. GROW UP OR GROW OLD
Many people confuse motivation with
influence.
But they also fail to realize that people
need the ability to do something even
more than motivation.
Technology moves fast, we need to
continue to learn, so does everyone
else. If we don’t, we grow old.

64. TIPS FOR INCREASING
PERSONAL ABILITY
Continuous learning
Build Capacity
Learning in small doses
Get feedback and improve
Prepare for setbacks
10,000 hours to expertise
Learn emotional skills
Enable with new skills

65. 6 SOURCES OF INFLUENCE
Personal
Social
Structural
Motivation
Stay out of
Comfort Zone
Use Peer
Pressure
Ability
Grow up or
Grow old

66. PEER PRESSURE
How many times have you done
something because you friends did it?
Opinions leaders are trusted not
because they know more.
People do things to earn praise from
friends and co-workers.
Impressing others seems to be the
norm of many societies.

67. PEER PRESSURE
Wrong corporate culture may
influence even the most creative new
employees in the wrong way.
“Janitor work is for dropouts” will
create challenges to hire and respect
that career path.
Behavioral norms shape society
Social influence is powerful

68. BECOME AN OPINION LEADER
An effective influencer is also a good
opinion leader.
To change behaviors, you need to be
a good opinion leader.

69. QUALITIES OF OPINION
LEADERS
1) Knowledgeable and stay updated to
the expertise at hand.
2) Trustworthiness.
3) Generous with time and open to
feedback.
-------------------------------------** Being respected and being trusted
are 2 different things

70. MAKE UNDISSCUSSABLE
DISSCUSSABLE
Some people on top often make others
accountable, but how many of them are
accountable for what they do?
Productivity and adding value. Poor people
are hardworking, but why are they paid so
little?
Whistleblowing?
Conspiracy of Silence?
Create a village for social support.

71. 6 SOURCES OF INFLUENCE
Personal
Social
Structural
Motivation
Stay out of
Comfort Zone
Ability
Grow up or
Grow old
Use Peer
Pressure
Generate
Social Mass

72. SOCIAL MASS
While social influence is about
motivation, when you only focus on
motivation, you limit your own
influence.
It is important for people to engage on
the issues important to them. Leaders
may speak about this, but rarely
enable it.

73. SOCIAL MASS
Power of Social Capital
Grameen Bank lending – 4 at a time.
Wisdom of Crowds
Women helping Women
Interdependence
Doing something for others pushes
you to do more.

74. 6 SOURCES OF INFLUENCE
Motivation
Stay out of
Comfort Zone
Ability
Grow up or
Grow old
Social
Use Peer
Pressure
Generate
Social Mass
Structural
Rewards and
Accountability
Personal

75. GAMIFICATION
Learning from successful games,
designing rewards, both tangible and
intangible can provide a source of
motivation.
Gamification and rewards can
motivate, however, there is also the
danger of failing to engage intrinsic or
personal motivation.

76. REWARDS AND
ACCOUNTABILITY
People have options, and priorities.
If a leader talks about quality but
rewards productivity, employees will
notice.
Lack of accountability, poor productivity
and slipshod quality is usually due to
poorly designed incentives that reward
the wrong behaviors.

77. LEVELS OF
MOTIVATION
1) Intrinsic Motivation
2) Personal and social Motivation
3) Well-designed reward system

78. ABOUT REWARDS
For rewards, less is more. (If you are
doing it right)
Do not let benefits become
entitlement.
Reward vital behaviors, not only
results
Point out divisive incentives.

79. ACCOUNTABILITY
Punishment sends a message. (So is
its absence)
Provide clear warning on what
punishment is to come when they
continue on their path.
Deter bad behaviors.
If all else fails, punishment must be
dealt.

80. 6 SOURCES OF INFLUENCE
Motivation
Stay out of
Comfort Zone
Ability
Grow up or
Grow old
Social
Use Peer
Pressure
Generate
Social Mass
Structural
Rewards and Change the
Accountability Environment
Personal

81. RECOGNIZING VITAL
BEHAVIORS
VITAL BEHAVIOR
RESULT
Source 1 – Personal “I don’t like …
Motivation
“That’s not fun for me …”
“I don’t enjoy …”
Source 2 – Personal “I can’t.”
Ability
“I don’t know how.”
“I keep trying, but I can’t
figure it out.”

82. RECOGNIZING VITAL
BEHAVIORS
VITAL BEHAVIOR
RESULT
Source 3 – Social
Motivation
“The boss told me to do this.
“She has been praising this for
months.”
“Everyone is doing this.”
Source 4 – Social
Ability
“John didn’t get me this
material.”
“When I needed help, everyone
disappeared.”
“I needed my boss’s approval,
but she wouldn’t sign off on it.”

83. RECOGNIZING VITAL
BEHAVIORS
VITAL BEHAVIOR
Source 5 – Structural
Motivation
RESULT
“That won’t affect my performance appraisal.”
“My dad pays me $20 for every soccer goal I
score, so I don’t pass.”
“Quality? You lose your job if you don’t hit the
numbers.”
Source 6 – Structural
Ability
“It’s hurry up and wait with all the bureaucracy
around here.”
“Drugs are available within a mile of every
house in the city.”
“Bosses get their data from analysts, not
customers, so they don’t care about quality.”

84. NEWS AND MEDIA
CREATE OUR REALITY
Perception creates our reality.
Media Watch (Rosarito Project)
Cognitive Dissonance

85. OBFUSCATION
It is hard to change an environment
when people do not see the problems.
Fish discover water last.
Make the invisible visible.
Most of us are environmentally
incompetent.

86. SWEAT ON SMALL
STUFF
No one is in charge, so no one cares.
Small victories offer hope.
Make it “home”
Change things in order to make the
right behavior easier to enact.
Make it unavoidable.

87. CLARIFY MEASURABLE
RESULTS
Don’t waste time on how to create change
until you’ve clarified what you want, why
you want it, and when you want it. An
effective result is:
1. Specific and measurable. It is
quantitative not qualitative.
2. What you really want. It’s the outcome
that matters.
3. Time bound. It comes with a completion
date.

88. CHECKS
So what? Now what? Right level?
Are the results specific and
measurable?
Is it what you really want?
Is it time bound?

89. BECOME A POSITIVE
INFLUENCER
If one source of influence does not
work, try more. The 6 sources listed
are just examples, and there are
probably more sources of influence
you can draw from to make positive
change happen.

90. KEY ELEMENTS
AGAIN
Connect behavior to moral values
Challenge norms.
Identify Vital Behaviors
Diagnose before prescribe - Understand
source of failed behavior
-- Police can focus on intervention and
implement small scale programs to have a
comprehensive effort to prevent crime.

91. KEY ELEMENTS
AGAIN
Reframe action as a vital behavior "ratting"
Zero-self esteem -> connect to moral
mission
Earn self respect by helping others (similar
to self) to "get it"
Spotlighting human consequences
Cold numbers don't carry weight ->
powerful and vicarious human experiences
Win hearts by honoring choice

92. KEY ELEMENTS
AGAIN
Biggest motivators of excellence is
intrinsic
Demand full attention for brief intervals
Provide immediate feedback against a clear
standard
Break mastery into mini goals
Prepare for setbacks, build emotional
resilience

93. KEY ELEMENTS
AGAIN
Harness peer pressure
Make undisscussable disscussable
Create Interdependence
Use Social Capital and Social Ability
Reward (vital) behaviors, not results.
Point out divisive incentives.
Fish discover water last.

94. KEY ELEMENTS
AGAIN
Make the invisible visible.
Make change inevitable
Find positive deviants from a culture of fear
and failure.

95. IDENTIFY EFFECTIVE
RESULTS.
Effective results are specific and
measurable, they matter, and they’re
time-bound.

96. IDENTIFY CRUCIAL MOMENTS.
Crucial moments tell you when it’s
time to act. For example, when your
alarm goes off, you can decide to
work out or roll over and go back to
sleep.

97. STUDY POSITIVE DEVIANCE.
Study those who succeed where most
others fail. Find the exceptions. For
example, there might be people right
around you that stand out. You can also
research examples on the Web. For
example, you can follow projects, such as
the Positive Deviance Initiative. You can
ask your network, “who succeeds despite
the odds?” and “what do they do
differently?”

98. SHARE VICARIOUS
EXPERIENCES.
Rather than lecture or coerce, you can
share vicarious experience to influence
others. One simple way is to tell a
story. This works if the audience identifies
with the story and there is emotion
involved. Another way is to have the
people you want to influence see people in
action. They can watch others perform the
vital behaviors and learn simply by
watching the successes and failures.

99. MOTIVATION AND
ABILITY.
People do things because of
motivation and ability. Another way to
put it is, “is it worth it?” and “Can I?”

100. PERSONAL, SOCIAL, AND
STRUCTURAL FORCES.
When you analyze motivation and ability,
you can think in terms of personal forces,
social forces, or structural
forces. Personal forces would be what an
individual wants and can do. Social forces
would be what the group wants and can
do. Structural forces would be the
systems, processes, tools, and
environment. It’s these 3 perspectives that
give you a more complete view of the
problem.

101. THINK IN SIX SOURCES
OF INFLUENCE.
Know the six reasons why we do what we
do:
1) personal motivation,
2) personal ability,
3) social motivation,
4) social ability,
5) structural motivation, and
6) structural ability.

102. DIAGNOSE WHY CHANGE
SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE.
Your world is perfectly organized to
create the behavior you’re currently
experiencing. When change seems
impossible, use the six sources of
influence to find the conspiracy of
causes.

103. THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN EFFECTIVE
AND INEFFECTIVE
CHANGE MAKERS IS
THAT THE EFFECTIVE
ONES DON’T RELY ON
A SINGLE SOURCE OF
INFLUENCE.

104. CHANGE IS TOUGH
Here are the Stats:
Eighty-five percent of corporate change efforts fail – Arthur D.
Little
2 out of 3 criminals are rearrested within 3 years – U.S. Dept. of
Justice
Two years after receiving coronary bypass surgery to save their
lives, 90 percent of patients are back to old behaviors – Dr.
Edward Miller, John Hopkins University.
Change is tough. You can dramatically improve your chances of
success, when you have a model.

105. OTHER REFERENCES
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-to-have-influence/
http://sourcesofinsight.com/six-sources-of-influence/
http://www.mikemcmahon.info/group/sixsources-ofinfluence/

106. FIND OUT MORE
FOLLOW ME
https://www.facebook.com/socialhub
https://twitter.com/robin_low